~ 55 ~
“There is literally no chance that I am going to let you touch me with that thing.” Major Infraction stated clearly. She was blocking Joe with a double row of undead, and the human was starting to get grumpy. “You take another step toward me, and I refuse to take responsibility for what I’ll do to your corpse.”
“Are you really afraid of a little needle prick?” Joe taunted her, finally resorting to childish insults to get a reaction. “Big bad Major...
2021-01-22 15:44:00 +0000 UTC
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~ 54 ~
When Joe woke up, he wasn’t feeling… good. In fact, he was feeling pretty ragged. Blood was soaking his white robes—currently dyed red—and a terrible headache was situated right between his eyes. He lumbered to his feet and rubbed his grainy eyes. “What in the abyss happened?”
He looked around, discovering that all the Dwarves that had joined him were little more than mincemeat contained by armor. The sight made him gag, and he stumbled back in horror...
2021-01-20 15:05:27 +0000 UTC
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~ 53 ~
Joe had been getting some overly-wide smiles from the Legion as he got closer to the front of the line. He was sure that they were waiting for a chance to ‘broaden his horizons’ by whaling on him for annoying them so thoroughly, but they would just need to wait their turn.
The Reductionist internally admitted that he might have been going overboard with his new skill, but there was something so freeing about shooting through the air in a perfectly controlled ...
2021-01-18 15:35:16 +0000 UTC
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~ 52 ~
Joe staggered out of the landfill just over a day later, remembering to use Lay on Hands only thanks to the ‘bleeding’ notification that kept popping up. His vision was swimming; the last day had been a constant grind that tested him immensely, but the profit was certainly worth the effort.
He had managed to reduce things in the landfill for almost twenty-two hours straight, his improved constitution allowing him to ignore sleep for more than a week if he wan...
2021-01-15 15:07:36 +0000 UTC
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~ 51 ~
Joe walked over to a stalagmite and extended his Field Array around the metal spire. He touched the metal and let his mana inform him of the requirements.
Item: Slag Pile.
Reduction value: 739 Rare aspects, 2,149 Uncommon aspects, 3,819 Common aspects, 7,381 Damaged aspects, 10,843 Trash aspects.
Reduction cost: 125 mana per second. Estimated reduction time required: 40 seconds.
“Oh? It gave me an approximate reduction time?...
2021-01-13 15:36:40 +0000 UTC
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~ 50 ~
Joe jumped off the column of stone, exhausted from having to constantly direct his ritual orbs into the patterns that he wanted. It was good training for future battle, and he had been able to safely destroy a full score of the Hammer Beasts, but it was frustrating that he needed to constantly visualize every aspect of the attack that he wanted to use. Even with a spell, he was able to visualize the spell form and put it out into the world; he did not need to maintain the shape...
2021-01-11 15:50:48 +0000 UTC
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~ 49 ~
As pristine as ever, the human walked into the forge and smiled at all of the Dwarves that were eyeing him with ill intent even while smiling back at him. One of the bearded males walked forward, fairly beaming with hospitality. “Welcome back, Joe! I have been looking forward to the opportunity of explaining the importance of patience during personal growth. Just as the rest of us have worked hard to be able to study at this place, I am certain that learning to flex your pati...
2021-01-08 16:31:50 +0000 UTC
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~ 48 ~
Havoc was shockingly lavish with the quest rewards. Joe stared at the small pile of Cores that glowed so brightly that his eyes were taking damage. Even so, he couldn’t look away. “One Unique, five Rare, ten Uncommon…”
He took a deep gulp, unsure about the other item that he had been given. Joe picked up the metal pass and turned it over in his hands. “One permanent access pass to enter and leave the landfill at will. I guess I was given an exit pass th...
2021-01-06 15:26:46 +0000 UTC
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~ 47 ~
Joe stepped out of the portal and directly into the new Grand Temple in the Dwarven capital. He went over and hugged the altar to Tatum, having a sudden realization that without Tatum, he would have been trapped on that small island until the Elves chose to let him go. There were very few times when he really thought about it, but he owed his start as a Ritualist to Tatum, and every success since then stemmed from that point in time.
“If being stuck away is anything for...
2021-01-04 16:03:15 +0000 UTC
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~ 46 ~
The first issue that Joe ran into was reworking the ritual itself. Just because he had an idea, didn’t mean that he could flawlessly put it into practice. The ritual he finally came up with was only at the Beginner rank, because it had to be. After being robbed blind, Joe was down to a single Synthetic Common Core, and he had only found that after desperately searching through his ring.
Only being able to use a two-ring ritual limited his options great...
2020-12-30 16:30:25 +0000 UTC
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~ 45 ~
The magma was thick, at least thicker than water, which made it harder to swim through. The density helped with the issue of sinking, allowing Joe to remain at a fairly level depth. He didn’t dare to go above the surface; not only would the Elves be looking for him, but there was a chance that he would touch the barrier and get tossed back onto one of the islands.
He was keeping a sharp eye on his Exquisite Shell, but he thought that it was lowering at a reason...
2020-12-28 16:08:39 +0000 UTC
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~ 44 ~
“A coffee elemental? Adorable.” Joe whipped around at the unexpected voice, finding that he was suddenly not alone on the tiny island. The chubbiest Elf Joe had ever seen was standing there with him, a half-mask hiding his features. “Ayy, how fun. Let’s start the process, shall we, brudda?”
Two more Elves were suddenly clamping thick manacles onto Joe’s arms, and he hadn’t even seen them approaching. The chubby Elf stepped close and touched bo...
2020-12-23 12:01:01 +0000 UTC
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~ 43 ~
Joe sprinted to one of the many strange objects that were scattered through the room on the crystal slabs and small plinths, skidding to a halt and slapping his hands on the perfectly triangular crystal. A flash of mana seeped out of him, and information appeared in his mind.
Item: Illusion Prism Focus.
Reduction value: 99 Rare aspects, 129 Uncommon aspects, 910 Common aspects, 7,991 Trash aspects.
Reduction cost: 125 mana per second.
2020-12-21 12:01:00 +0000 UTC
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~ 42 ~
The fort below was filled with a variety of ‘buildings’ Joe had never seen before. Only the wall that he was crouching on seemed to be made by hand, while everything else within the confines seemed to be some variant of a plant. Even so, the general layout fit with what he had been expecting to see.
“That must be sleeping quarters, that has to be a dining facility, and that…” Joe’s eyes locked on a building that radiated a literal rainbow, which shot ...
2020-12-18 12:01:00 +0000 UTC
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~ 41 ~
The Reductionist now had a dilemma. Should he go and report his discovery right away… or should he enter the tunnel system and try to learn more information? There were pros and cons to each of the options. Namely, if he left the cave, the door would open and light would shine through and into the tunnels. The Elves might be given a chance to close this off.
But, if Joe was fast enough, he might be able to get an entire battalion of Dwarves back here. He would need to g...
2020-12-16 15:35:15 +0000 UTC
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~ 40 ~
Joe was dazed by the shift away from the misty tutorial world and back into his expanded cave. It took a few moments to reorient himself, so he reviewed his notifications. Nothing pressing or overly important demanded his attention, so he turned his eyes back to the summoning circles that were prepared and laid out in front of him. “That was a serious diversion, but at least I have a better understanding of what I need to be doing.”
“As for this summoning circle… ...
2020-12-14 15:09:44 +0000 UTC
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~ 39 ~
Words made of wispy Trash aspects appeared in the air, narrated by the same calm tone as every other tutorial that had played. Joe sighed in relief, turning his attention fully to the training.
Welcome to the Proper Aspect Storage Containment Creation Tutorial! This section is designed to demonstrate the proper creation of Aspect-specific storage devices.
While it is possible to use any bound storage device to store aspects, there are many negatives tha...
2020-12-11 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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~ 38 ~
“Why am I not surprised?” Joe shook his head wryly when he reached the caves. A bustling market dominated the foot of a sheer cliff that rose high into the sky, with large banners announcing the ‘best in getting away’ supplies. He walked past dozens of vendors offering food pills that would allow him not to eat for three days, people selling dehydrated water, and all sorts of things that, frankly… Joe had no idea if they were real or not. Magic made fact out of a myri...
2020-12-09 19:38:12 +0000 UTC
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~ 37 ~
The Hammer Beast wasn’t giving Joe any time to prepare himself, but that was fine by him… at first. Joe was all sorts of excited to have some ball vs orb action, until he realized that the beast’s ability to maneuver was far superior to his own. In fact, all the beast’s physical characteristics topped his by a significant amount.
Joe dove out of the way again as the beast rolled past him, still getting clipped by a spike on the outer edge of its armored s...
2020-12-07 16:59:45 +0000 UTC
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~ 36 ~
Joe stepped right back into the shop. His first steps outside had been interrupted by the braying laugh of a mustachioed Dwarf that ‘helpfully’ informed him that his current formal shoes ‘ruined the gravitas of his outfit’. In other words, he looked outright ridiculous. “Any chance you have some shoes that either match the clothes or my robe? I have normal shoes on, but…”
He walked out a few minutes later wearing white running shoes. They enhanced his speed ...
2020-12-04 16:06:43 +0000 UTC
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~ 35 ~
By the time Joe approached the Estate, he felt like a melted candle. In an effort to ‘see’ how hard it was to gain characteristic points with the golem restricting him, he had turned off Neutrality Aura. His fancy new clothes were slick with sweat, and he was stumbling with fatigue and dehydration.
A little over four hours at barely a walking pace down the ‘child’ portion of the road had brought him back, and Joe was ready to fall onto the ground and stay...
2020-12-02 16:30:07 +0000 UTC
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~ 34 ~
Joe left the forge while studiously ignoring the too-wide smiles on the faces of all the other apprentices that were trying to draw the Grandmaster’s attention. He hurried back to Havoc, straining under the weight of the six silver orbs. He cheerfully grumbled, “These things are like… fifty pounds each. Do they do a point of blunt damage per pound or something?”
Had it not been for his newly enhanced strength, Joe would have been stumbling along at best, or needin...
2020-11-30 15:14:48 +0000 UTC
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~ 33 ~
McPoundy ran a hand through his beard, then tugged on the hair as he stared at the diagram that was just out of reach. “Yer asking a lot. More than ya think. To make this weapon, a single discipline isn’t enough. Do you even know what it is? The weapon?”
“I don’t.” Joe beamed a brilliant smile at the Dwarf.
“It’s weaponsss that were made by some Sage in the distant past, and the end result is specific to a base class of Ritualist. N...
2020-11-25 12:00:15 +0000 UTC
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~ 32 ~
The Princess Priestess had a surprisingly large pool of mana, which Joe realized was likely due to her lifestyle as a Noble since birth. Between political intrigue and her life's mission of becoming a priestess, she had likely focused all of her spare time on increasing her intelligence and wisdom.
Even still, the two of them alone did not have the power to convert the entire Grand Temple. As their power swirled out of them, other Dwarves stepped forward from the audience...
2020-11-23 19:22:35 +0000 UTC
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~ 31 ~
Joe stared at the new clothes on his bed as he heaved for breath. Steam was coming off his skin, and he was currently regretting telling Havoc that his characteristic training had stagnated. The Dwarf’s response had been a kindly smile and a curt ‘walk to your room’. Then he had left, striding quickly out of Joe’s field of view.
The human hadn’t expected that as soon as he turned away from the Dwarf, a… golem of some kind would attach itself to his bo...
2020-11-20 15:04:49 +0000 UTC
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~ 30 ~
“I mean…” Joe stared at the cat queen with total befuddlement. “Can we… not? I like not having extra failure to deal with. I’d like to go back to the point where I was saying ‘no’ to the reward, please?”
“You do not understand our decree. You think of it as a threat?” Cleo ignored him and pulled out documents from a storage device, handing them over and decisively stating, “No. We have decided that we are going to help you with these problems. Thes...
2020-11-18 12:01:02 +0000 UTC
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~ 29 ~
Joe was mentally drained after such an interesting day. He went to ‘his’ room and dropped onto the bed, abruptly launching himself off as the blanket gave a furious yowl and his Exquisite Shell flickered.
Exquisite Shell: 2345/2346.
Health: 1,504/1,574
There was a tiny *slap* as his shadow materialized and hit something, pulling Joe’s attention to a small animal that was hissing at him. “A cat? Why i...
2020-11-16 12:00:03 +0000 UTC
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~ 28 ~
The sword finished vanishing into aspects and remnants, and Joe stared at his updated listing with flushed cheeks. He was panting from the heat and mana deprivation, but he was excited. This was the first time he had gained Artifact-ranked aspects!
Aspects gathered
Trash: 10,314
Damaged: 9,902
Common: 7,421
Uncommon: 5,222
Rare: 1,834
Special: 100 (Zombified). 100 (Anima).
2020-11-13 12:00:03 +0000 UTC
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The size of this is why I don't drop it into the book. <3
Combat Skills
Mend Journeyman 0
Lay on hands. Student 0
Neutrality Aura Student 0
Retaliation of Shadows Journeyman 1
Corify Beginner 5
Query (Pray) Novice 2
Resurrection Novice 6
acid spray Apprentice 5
Exquisite Shell. Beginner 9
Wither Plant Apprentice 5
Cone of Cold Beginner 5
Planar Shift Student 0
Dark Lightning Stri...
2020-11-11 15:58:03 +0000 UTC
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~ 27 ~
“Well, kid, you’ve gone and done it now.” Havoc let out a sigh and a cloud of cigar smoke. They were back at what Joe had just learned was Havoc’s family estate in the Capital city of the Dwarves. “You let the abyssal gods loose on the world. We were so close to forcing Gaia out of here, and then the war would have been our own, instead of a great game for the bored people looking down from Valhalla.”
“And now people want to talk to me?” ...
2020-11-11 12:01:00 +0000 UTC
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